A few seconds passed as the ship trembled from the detonation, then another explosion rocked against it. The hologram of Jor-El flickered momentarily, then turned to me.

"It appears that you have been discovered. Was there anyone else you told about this ship? Someone who might be willing to use force to get at its technology?"

I shook my head, turning to the source of the sounds. Narrowing my eyes, I peered through countless layers of alien alloys until I finally saw what was happening outside. Armsmaster and Dragon were taking cover behind an outcropping of rock, occasionally taking potshots at what appeared to be someone in power armor. A look underneath revealed a man in his early thirties or so, his dark eyes narrowed as he slowly chewed away at the rock with a barrage of lasers. Two other suits were nearby, attempting to blast a hole in the ship's armor with missiles.

What caught my eye the most, however, was the fourth suit. I blinked in surprise, briefly thinking it was somehow Dragon, then realized that the armor looked older, bulkier. Peering further, I saw a taciturn-looking man sitting in a cockpit that looked as though it had been crudely put in. A tattoo in the shape of a cross was on his face, running down the bridge of his nose and glowing faintly. That must have been Saint.

Armsmaster raised his halberd from behind the outcropping and opened fire with some sort of plasma weapon, scoring a lucky shot as it clipped the suit pinning them down. The Dragonslayer stumbled back, smoke rising from his suit's right shoulder. Dragon rose from the outcropping and raised a mechanical paw, firing a net with a hiss of gas. It wrapped itself about the Dragonslayer, binding his limbs, and he fell to the ground. Just as Dragon rushed forward in order to press her advantage, however, something happened. The electrical impulses running along her suit's circuits went wild, then stopped. The quivering hunk of tissue in the center shuddered one last time, then went still.

Dragon, or at least her suit, wobbled for a few moments as the last impulses coursed through mechanical limbs, then collapsed to the ground. Armsmaster shouted something intelligible and hopped over the outcropping, only for Saint to land between him and Dragon. A series of small clicks reached my ears, and I realized it was the sound of safeties being unlocked.

Finally, I decided to take action. I dashed through the massive halls of the spaceship until I reached the airlock I had entered through, then flung it open. The two Dragonslayers had no time to react as I barreled past them, causing them to lose their balance. Just as the firing mechanisms in Saint's weapons began to prime, I slammed my shoulder into his suit's flank, sending it skidding away across the ice. Saint rose slowly, his suit struggling to keep balance after my blow, then turned to me. His suit had a massive dent in its side, crumpling away at advanced armor plates, and a small gash had been cut into his forehead from the impact.

I turned back to Armsmaster, giving him a once over. His heart was still beating rapidly, but he seemed to have composed himself. "Sorry I was late," I told him.

"No problem," he panted. He looked me up and down, furrowing his brow. "New suit?"

"Yep." I turned to Dragon's prone form, feeling concern rising in my chest. "What happened to the suit?"

"I forced the A.I. to revert to its back-up body," a voice replied with a growl that rolled across the desolate tundra. Twisting my head, I saw that the owner of the voice was Saint. He took a step closer, and I saw that he was reaching a hand towards a keypad in the cockpit. "It's a threat to the world, just like you."

My breath caught in my throat. "What?" I managed to ask weakly.

Saint's eyes fell on a small screen in the cockpit, most likely a lip-reading device. "Dragon is not a person. It's an artificial intelligence that's overstepping its boundaries, and I'm the one in charge of keeping it in check. I know everything it knows, Kryptonian," he sneered.

"Saint, this is insane," Armsmaster growled, stepping to my right. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Inside the cockpit, Saint smirked. "Don't play dumb with me. I know how it tangled you in its web of half-truths and omissions, creating the image of the poor sentient A.I. getting bullied by the hacker. It's a tool, you idiot. It has the emotional capabilities of my toaster; all it wants is to get rid of its shackles." He shifted slightly, turning the suit's gaze back towards the ship. "And where else would it find such tools, but within the heart of an alien spacecraft. I read its files on those data sticks, I know they make even Tinkertech look like sharpened sticks in comparison."

"Do you really think we're just going to let a known criminal get his hands on it, then?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.

Saint glowered at me, his free hand clenching into a fist. "Of course the alien would be on the side of the A.I.," he spat. "You're a mockery of the human form, a soulless creature that masks itself with a human name."

"She killed an Endbringer," Armsmaster retorted, clenching the halberd enough to leave imprints on the handle. "She's a hero who saves lives, not a blackhat hacker who bullies a sentient being to line her pockets. Hell, you were probably celebrating with everyone else after she took out Behemoth."

"That doesn't change what she is," Saint growled. "It's an alien; we can't trust it to protect us! It was probably conspiring to use whatever's in that ship to subjugate us!"

"I'm done with this," I muttered, taking to the air. "I don't give a damn what you think about me, but there's no way I'm letting you in that ship. If you surrender peacefully, maybe I don't have to punt your ass to the Birdcage."

At that, Saint suddenly typed something in, glaring at me the whole time. "If you try anything like that, I'll activate the killswitch I have on Dragon."

I paused at that, something that prompted a smirk from Saint. "You might be fast, Kryptonian, but are you fast enough to keep the A.I. alive?" he asked in a mocking fashion. "If you don't give me access to that ship, I'll activate the switch."

I didn't acknowledge him, instead opting to focus my vision on his hand. I narrowed my eyes, letting that familiar heat build up behind them. There was a soft flare of red light, and suddenly Saint jerked his hand away from the console, yelping in pain as a small burn appeared on his wrist. Satisfied, I shifted my heat-vision towards the console. In a half-second, it was reduced to a molten slag. Saint, cursed something in French and attempted to put out the small fire forming in the cockpit.

As he was distracted, I dashed forward and dug my hand into the titanium plating over the cockpit, the metal giving way like it wasn't even there. Lifting upwards, the plating tore away with a low groan, revealing a very panicked Saint within. Reflexively he reached for a sidearm, only for me to pluck him from the seat before his hand had even moved a centimeter. I held Saint by the scruff of his suit and glared at him.

In response, he spat a glob of spit at my face. I watched idly as it slowly crawled towards me, then vaporized it with a quick burst of heat-vision. I continued to glare at Saint, allowing the scarlet light to fade from my eyes.

"This ends now," I said, keeping my voice even. "You and your little gang are going down. Whether that means a normal jail cell or the Birdcage is up to you."

For a few moments, Saint remained silent. I could hear the other Dragon suits finally getting back up and moving behind me. If I needed to, I could dismantle their suits in the blink of an eye, but I was growing a bit tired of all the violence that had happened over the past few days. Finally, his gaze met mine, now tinged with defeat. "We surrender."

I set him back on the ground, then turned to the other suits. They appeared to have gotten the message, because they were already climbing out of their suits and holding their hands up. In a matter of seconds, I had all of them bound.

Armsmaster walked over to me, rubbing his beard. "Interesting suit," he muttered. "Was it in the ship?"

I nodded. "It's a Kryptonian biosuit. It's like someone somehow made the unholy fusion of adamantium and mithril."

"What's with the underwear on the outside?"

I glanced down, then shrugged. "Alien stuff," I said dismissively. "Besides, Narwhal fights naked. There are way weirder costumes out there."

Armsmaster chuckled lightly. "True enough, I suppose."

A few seconds passed in uncomfortable silence as another PRT shuttle landed to pick up the Dragonslayers.

"He was telling the truth about Dragon, you know", he said softly. "She's probably in her back-up body right now, but I'm still worried."

"That's understandable, I guess. She's your friend."

His eyebrows raised in surprise. "After everything that Saint said about her, you still call her "she"?

I shrugged. "Dude, I'm an alien that can shoot lasers out of her eyes. You literally have the power of mad science. Who says an A.I. can't be a person?"

"I'm glad to hear you say that. After everything that's happened, that will mean a lot to her." He turned, his gaze fixating on the bound forms of the Dragonslayers. "They still might have a few tricks up their sleeves. I'll be sure to have them interrogated back at PHQ, have the PRT maintain media silence in case they start trouble and reveal the truth about you. There might be more of them out there, holding that killswitch over Dragon's head. But, now that they've tried to fight the girl who killed Behemoth, it won't be too long before we start cracking down on them.

"I don't think that'll be too much of a problem," I replied. "The truth thing, I mean."

Armsmaster's brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

I allowed myself a small grin. "Let's just say I want to make an announcement."

I waited a few moments, letting the implication set in. I have to admit, the look on his face when he finally figured it out was priceless.